1904.] MASON — RIPENING OF THOUGHTS IN COMMON. 155 



Religion. 



So far as it enters the scientific arena, religion has to do with a 

 spirit world and its influence on the world of sense. What is 

 thought in common about that world, its physiography and its 

 inhabitants, especially their activities among men and things, goes 

 by the name of creed ; what is done in common by men in the 

 organization of society and in conduct responsive to creed is cult 

 or worship. The most overpowering thoughts in common have 

 belonged to the realm of religion. Things change and thoughts 

 with them, not rapidly but surely. The unseen is not known to 

 change, is believed not to change. The words of Paul, " For the 

 things which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are not 

 seen are eternal," embody a thought common to all races and ages, 

 and have held all humanity in lines of conduct more firmly than 

 the teachings of experience. 



To sum up, similar words and actions arise among men, spon- 

 taneously and incessantly, not so much by reason of similar envi- 

 ronments and provocations on the spur of the moment as from 

 a psychological cause, the possession of thoughts in common that 

 have come down through the ages and gathered velocity and 

 impetus as they rolled. 



If subtle, telepathic influences exist in spiritual connections, they 

 grow out of common thinking, they are the eff'ect, not the cause, of 

 striking coincidences. 



To the educator, the reformer, and the legislator, no less than to 

 the investigator, a constant realization of this fact is necessary to 

 success. 



To those who listened to this paper, necessarily brief and general, 

 multitudes of instances will arise where strange coincidences in 

 conduct have expressed themselves in every line of activity. If 

 they were not too busily engaged with the affairs of life they would 

 have noticed many more ; because with a normally constituted 

 mind and in a completely organized society they are the rule and 

 not the exception. 



